HK Govt's Consultations Are Fake By Default

"Our consultation would be criticized as a fake exercise if we did not put forward the status quo option," the source said.

"Even if we did not set it out now, pollsters would probably include this option when carrying out surveys and many respondents might be found to prefer that option. In that case, we would also come under fire. So we decided to include this option in the consultation paper."

I'll criticise it as a fake exercise even if the government does put forward the status quo option. Previously I've written and submitted opinions for organisations on a few consultations. When you finally read through the government summaries for those consultations and the way the submissions are categorised and counted by the government, you realise the whole consultation exercise by the government is a fraud. The HK government goes in to the exercise looking for a specific answer and they'll get that answer no matter what the submissions to the consultation have said. It's a bit like the push polls run by the HK government's Central Policy Unit. It's bad social science. It's bad politics. And it's what you get from an unaccountable unchecked "executive-led" government. Excuses rather than excellence.